


Heart Like Still Waters

by Heronfem



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: (well the breaking of an arranged marriage), Alternate Universe - Avatar & Benders Setting, Arranged Marriage, Complicated Relationships, Fire Nation Royal Family, Firebender Ushijima Wakatoshi, Inspired by Avatar: The Last Airbender, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Political Alliances, Relationship Discussions, Waterbender Tendou Satori, iwaoi if you squint
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-04
Updated: 2018-04-04
Packaged: 2019-04-18 07:38:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14208351
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Heronfem/pseuds/Heronfem
Summary: Crown Prince Ushijima Wakatoshi of the Fire Nation receives a letter, and speaks with his bodyguard about the nature of their relationship in the wake of the news it bears.





	Heart Like Still Waters

Wakatoshi is just three days past his nineteenth birthday when the letter reaches him. 

The letter hasn't been tampered with, by virtue of who the sender and recipients are. Royal prerogative, to have his mail left alone, Wakatoshi supposes. He reads it in the quietest of his chambers of the palace, the brilliant red of the Fire Nation surrounding him in all her glory. He lets the letter fall to the side afterward, resting on his writing desk. Outside of his window, the day is hot and sunny, but pleasant enough. He wonders, faintly, how it feels in the Earth Kingdom.

“I'd like to speak with you,” he says to the open air, and with the faintest sliver of noise Tendou drops to the ground behind him from the ceiling. Wakatoshi can always count on finding him above him. The ceilings are high in the palace, and Tendou loves to scramble through the beams and spy from above. It gives him a better vantage point, and he likes startling people when he drops down to Wakatoshi's side.

“Wakatooooshi,” Tendou croons, slipping over to him and onto his lap like some sort of pet and not the bodyguard he is. “What's got you so bothered?”

He hands him the letter, and Tendou settles back against his broad chest to read it. With his flame red hair, black and red garb, and pale skin, he does look like a firebender, or at least a Fire nation native. But he's a waterbender, born to a waterbender held captive in the prisons and given to the royal family as little more than a curiosity upon his birth. He became Wakatoshi's playmate, companion, and eventual bodyguard from the time he turned 4, 10, and 12 respectively. Only his unique talents give him away as being anything but Fire Nation bred, and he's an excellent bodyguard because of it. It had taken some time to find true waterbending scrolls, but the payoff was well worth it. He and Wakatoshi compliment each other well- water conducts lightning like a dream. 

Tendou toys with the choker that marks him as Wakatoshi's staff as he reads, face falling and eyes narrowing. 

“He's serious,” Tendou says as he reaches the end. He sounds a little surprised. “He's actually serious.”

“Yes. Oikawa often is.”

Tendou sucks on his teeth, cocking his head to the side. “What do you want to do? We could hunt him. Bring him back to the fold. He can't be too deep into the continent yet.”

“I don't see much point. He's stubborn and our resources are better devoted elsewhere.” Wakatoshi drums his fingers on the desk, contemplating the way the wind blows the trees back and forth, back and forth. “Iwaizumi is a very... Earth Kingdom name.”

“It is.” Tendou leans into him, all traces of his smile gone. 

Wakatoshi rests his hand on Tendou's leg, rubbing his thumb over the black fabric. Tendou says nothing, just huffs a sigh, and stares into the depths of Wakatoshi's room. He sees things that others don't and Wakatoshi wonders what he sees in the sparsely furnished room. For someone of his stature, there should be a great deal more fuss. But Wakatoshi does not like fripperies and finery. He tolerates it for the sake of being considered “respectable” by the council, and dresses plainly otherwise. His rooms are plain, though everything is of fine quality. To live in the wealth and extremes that the council does seems pointless when simplicity does the job just as well, if not better.

Wakatoshi watches the shadows creep along the walkway outside, Tendou a comfortable weight in his lap, one bony shoulder digging into his chest when he adjusts so he's sideways in Wakatoshi's lap. It's a familiar position.

“Are you angry?” Tendou asks, at last, and Wakatoshi blinks at him as he returns his attention to the present. 

“Why would I be angry?” he asks, a little confused. It makes little sense. Angry at what? Tendou? He's never angry at Tendou. Tendou is like the tides that seem to live in his blood, always in motion and changing while somehow remaining constant. Tendou never upsets him.

Tendou cuts his eyes to him, face thoughtful. “Oikawa was a powerful bender from a powerful and old family. A good political match. With him gone, they have to redraw the alliances and treaties and a whole new marriage contract. That'll take time away from other things. More important things, like actual work. And... You aren't exactly known for being anything but possessive. He's my Wakatoshi's charming little false-rival, fun to squish and make squirm. A plaything, if you will, and one that belonged to you.”

Oh. That.

“Regardless, I cannot say I'm angry that he left our engagement,” Wakatoshi says, looking back out of the windows. 

“Ohhhh?” Tendou's long fingers pick at the necklace that hangs down onto his chest, a simple beaten metal pendant in the shape of a flame unless turned. Then, it becomes crashing waves. Wakatoshi is never without it. 

He can feel Tendou's eyes on him. “...I do not think our marriage would have been a happy one. We would have been forced to select a woman to host a child for me, in time, and Oikawa is not known for wanting to share what he considers his. A surrogate on its own would have been one thing, but... I feel neither of us would have been happy. He would not want to share me even if he did not love me, and is too principled to lower himself to bed servants or a mistress after taking vows to me. And I...” He pauses, trying to find the right words. “I could never have been happy without you by my side and in my arms” 

Tendou goes still in his arms, and Wakatoshi lets out a slow, shaky breath. 

They've never dared to touch this. This- this skunk-bear in the room, this thing that they don't speak about for fear it'll fall apart. But it's been almost a full four years since Tendou had kissed him on the palace rooftop the first time, a full two years entirely since they started falling into bed together and carefully saying nothing the next morning. Wakatoshi has never been the one to push, has always let him make the first move. He's never truly, openly made his feelings clear. 

He finds that he thinks that may have been a mistake. 

“You're the Crown Prince,” Tendou says, his voice very soft. “You have to marry one day.”

Wakatoshi looks back at him. “Yes,” he says, his voice quiet as well. “But not today. And I can drag the negotiations out for years. Decades. Until I have them worn down to nothing, and then I wish, if you are willing, to marry you. There will be other royalty to appoint to heir apparent. I need not have children, if you do not wish it.”

Tendou's eyes get very, very wide. “Wakatoooshi, that's very sweet.”

“You needn't answer me now,” Wakatoshi says, looking into his eyes. “We are both still very young. We have a great deal of time before it becomes important to make a choice. You may decide that there is another you'd rather marry and bed.”

Tendou considers him for a moment. “You might do the same.”

Wakatoshi blinks at him, slow and calm. “I feel you in my heart like still waters,” he says simply. “I know that there will never be anyone else.”

Tendou stares at him, mouth dropping open, and Wakatoshi turns his head as his cheeks heat with the emotion the declaration has stirred in his heart. Beyond the windows, the wind has stilled. The trees have ceased their movements, the palms sitting still and calm. He wishes he felt as calm as them. The red of the pillars outside the room draws most eyes, but in his private garden there is a deep pool for swimming, on which lotuses sit and which catfish keep clean. His eyes are drawn to the water, rippling in the sunlight.

“I love you,” Tendou says, matter of fact, and Wakatoshi turns back to him. Tendou looks scared but determined, and takes a deep breath. “I do. And I will. When we can. I'll marry you.”

“Should you change your mind,” Wakatoshi says, slipping his fingers under Tendou's chin, “I will let you leave.”

“Will you?” Tendou challenges, grinning at him. His long fingers have tangled in the chain of the pendant he'd made for Wakatoshi's eighteenth birthday. Fire and waves, perfectly meshed together to become one. “Will you, my Lord?”

Wakatoshi takes a moment to think. “I would let you go in the flesh,” he says, leaning in until they're sharing breath. “But never, ever in spirit.”

Tendou surges up to kiss him, throwing one arm around his neck to hold him there, and Wakatoshi drinks it in, memorizing every aspect of the moment to hold it close to his heart. The real world will come back soon enough; there will be fights and long meetings, the Oikawa's to speak to, new alliances with the noble houses to draw up, the council being difficult and his father being a nightmare, but this. This, he can hold onto. This moment, right here, right now, he will keep in his heart as a shield against the coming months. He wraps his arms around Tendou, and holds him close.

**Author's Note:**

> Idk this concept got stuck in my head and if I wanted to get anything done I had to write it so ta-da, have complicated-relationship UshiTen set in A:TLAverse. Don't look too hard at the plot here. 
> 
> Comments feed my soul! I may add more snippets to this 'verse when I so desire, and if you enjoyed this I have other Haikyuu fic, please have at it. You can find me at heronfem.tumblr.com as well, and my haikyuu sideblog is maneazu.tumblr.com.


End file.
